Man found guilty in murder of Laclede County couple in 2010

Aug. 24, 2013

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A jury has recommended that a man convicted this week in a double homicide should get the death penalty.

Jesse Dean Driskill, 33, was found guilty of murder on Wednesday in the deaths of 82-year-old Johnnie Wilson and his 76-year-old wife, Coleen, at their Laclede County home in 2010.

In addition to two counts of first-degree murder, Driskill also was found guilty of forcible rape, forcible sodomy, first-degree burglary and five counts of armed criminal action.

Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster took the unusual step of personally assisting in the case.

“If the death penalty is not reserved for a 33-year-old, 18-time convicted criminal, raping and sodomizing, torturing and killing a 76-year-old woman and her 82-year-old husband over five dollars, then we should all ask ourselves why in the world we have this law at all,” Koster said in a news release.

Koster’s direct involvement in the courtroom is atypical but not unprecedented.

During the trial, he presented evidence and offered a final argument before jurors began deliberating.

Koster is working with Laclede County Prosecuting Attorney Jon Morris.

Authorities say the couple were covered by bedding, a fire was set and their vehicle was found ablaze along a road.

Prosecutors said both were shot, with Coleen Wilson dying from a gunshot wound and Johnnie Wilson dying from asphyxiation by a plastic bag in his throat.

“If Johnnie and Coleen were here, they would tell you that they weren’t done with their living. Johnnie would tell you he still had flowers to bring Coleen. And Coleen would tell you there would soon be a new great grandson that she so very much looked forward to meeting,” Koster said.

Following the completion of the penalty phase of the trial on Friday, jurors deliberated for approximately four hours before recommending the death penalty on the two murder-in-the-first-degree convictions.

Formal sentencing on all of the verdicts by Laclede County Circuit Presiding Judge Kenneth Hayden is scheduled for 2 p.m. Nov. 5.